Interest Grows in U.S. Crop Insurance; Brazil Food Safety

**The U.S. crop insurance system is attracting attention from many other countries.

National Crop Insurance Services president, Thomas Zacharias tells Brownfield crop insurance is handled differently in most other countries, without the federal system we have.

Zacharias says representatives from Japan, Serbia, Austria, Germany came to the U.S. in the last year to learn how crop insurance is managed here.

He says many foreign visitors are surprised by the amount of data and infrastructure required to manage risk and rapidly pay claims.

**A USDA audit of Brazil’s food safety system has revealed concerns about meat exported from that country. The audit, by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, says more needs to be done to bring Brazil’s meat inspection up to U.S. standards.

According to Brownfield, the FSIS stepped up inspections of meat imported from Brazil after corruption in Brazil’s meat inspection system was exposed earlier this year.

The increased scrutiny resulted in nearly 2 million pounds of Brazilian beef, more than 10 percent of what the U.S. imports from Brazil, being rejected between March and June of this year.